60 years ago today: Actor Yoshitaka Zushi born

It was exactly 60 years ago today on 19 March 1955 that actor Yoshitaka Zushi was born.

Zushi is internationally best known for his work under Kurosawa. At the age of eight, the young actor was cast as the thieving boy Choji for Kurosawa’s Red Beard (1965), and five years later he led the cast in Dodesukaden (1970), where he played the young train crazy boy whose onomatopoeic train sounds gave the film its title. Zushi also appeared in a small role in Ran (1985), played the ghost soldier Noguchi whom the commander meets in the “Tunnel” episode of Dreams (1990), and finally appeared as one of the neighbours in Madadayo (1993).

Yoshitaka Zushi was born in Osaka to a family of child actors. He appeared in his first film at the age of seven and made something of a breakthrough a year later in Kaneto Shindo‘s Mother (1963). Zushi has worked steadily ever since, appearing both on the big screen as well as in many television dramas. His most recent films include Kurosawa’s former assistant director Takashi Koizumi‘s Best Wishes for Tomorrow (2008) and The Professor’s Beloved Equation (2006).

Yoshitaka Zushi’s brother Takao Zushi (1946-2005) was also a prolific television and film actor who appeared in Kurosawa’s Ran and Madadayo, as well as playing a part in the posthumously filmed Kurosawa homage After the Rain (2000), directed by Takashi Koizumi.